Lady&#39;s blouse



March 16, 1937. F. w. NETSKY I LADYS BLOUSE Filed Feb. 24, 1936.

Patented Mar. 16, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LADYS BLQUSEL Application February 24, 1936, Serial No. 65,300

2 Claims. (01. 2-54) This invention relates to ladies blouses and generallylikegarments and more particularly to those made of somewhat rough and relatively thin material such as linen.

5 Blouses of this character tend to wear in the vicinity of the juncture of the sleeve and under sideof' the armhole more rapidly than at other points,' a condition principally due to the constant rubbing of the under side ofthe sleeve against the body. ofthe garment adjacent the armhole and therubbing of the wearers skin against the inner face of the'fabric when in use, especially if the garment is made of material such as linen which has a relatively' hard butsomewhat roughened surface. Additionally, of course, the effect of perspiration and moisture on the material lying beneathsthe armpit is deleterious to the fabric and thus accelerates wear due to the: abrasive action, iflitwmayibe so termed, induced by the rubbingof.thefadjacent'plies-of the fabric upon each otherand against the wearer's skin.

Various ways of'preventing or at least minimizingithis condition have been proposed but none of them, so far'as I am aware, has been entirely 5 satisfactory. Thus; for example, the use of a covered. rubber dress shield of the. well known type is objectionable for in blouses of the character to which my invention relates it is unsightly when thegarment is viewed from the inside and very 3'0 definitely: shows through the fabric when the blouse is being worn, while if made of plain rubber without a covering. the shieldhas a feel frequently objected to by women and if made of rubber enclosed in fabric it is bulky and some- 35 times irritates the skin, and in either case must be removed prior to laundering the garment and replaced thereafter before it is reworn.

Furthermore, while a shield made of a textile material similar or approximately similar to that 40 of which the garment: itself is made has heretofore been suggested, those of which I am aware have either included a seam overlying the seam joining the sleeve and body of the blouse under the armhole or when not including such a seam 45 have embodied excessive fullness at this point, in either case constricting the wearer's freedom of movement and causing-considerable discomfort because of the presence of theiadded thickness of material in or adjacent the armpit.

50 A principal object of my invention, therefore, is to provide a ,ladys blouse or similar garment embodying: novel means forming a permanent part thereof for minimizing, wear of the fabric in the vicinity of the sleeve and under side of the arm- .55 holeyet o a characterwhich does not detract from-the appearance of the blouse when it is being worn and which enhances its appearance when viewed from the inside; which provides a neat and attractive finish at the point of convergence of the various seams at the lower side of the armhole; which is effective to absorb perspiration or other moisture in the vicinity thereof; which does the following description of one embodiment 20 thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Fig. Us a fragmentary front view of the sleeve and adjacent portion of the body of a ladys blouse embodying the invention, with certain parts broken away for clearness of illustration.

Fig. 21s a fragmentary enlarged. plan view of the garment shown in Fig. 1 adjacent the junction of the seams beneath the armhole as it appears when the blouse is spread out flat and viewed from the inside; and

Figs. 3 and 4 are greatly enlarged sectional views on lines 3-3 and 44 respectively.

Throughout the drawing the same symbols are used to designate the same parts in the several figures.

More particularly, as shown, the'blouse comprises a body, portion I and a sleeve 210i abbreviated type thoughof course the length of the 40 sleeve is a matter of'choice as long as it extends for a short distance outwardly from the armhole; it may be finished with a cuif 3 defined by suitable stitching. The body is cut out in the usual way to form the armhole and the inner end of the sleeve united to the marginal edge thereof. by stitching 4. In like manner the front and back panels of the body are. brought together at the sides and united 'by stitching 5, this seam .merging into the seam 6 uniting the material of which sleeve 2 is formed. at its under side. These several seams are preferably of the 'character known as French seams formed by spaced rowsof stitches successively sewn from opposite. sidesv of the material whereby the prestions adjacent the inner side of the material of which the sleeve and body are formed for a distance approximating that in which the maximum wear, induced by the aforesaid causes, takes place and thereby form a shield to protect the blouse fabric from contact with the wearers skin and also to give a sort of cushioning effect behind the fabric adjacent the armpit which, I have found, materially reduces the wear on the outer surfaces thereof resulting from the more or less constant rubbing when the blouse is being worn. This shield I form of the same material as the body and sleeve of the garment or of some other suitable textile material, preferably one of substantially similar texture, as it then imparts the same feel to the wearers skin and so gives no appreciable sensation of its presence when the blouse is in use and does not show through or become silhouetted to any marked extent when the arm is raised. Moreover, as the shield covers the point of juncture of the several seams it materially enhances the appearance of the blouse when the latter is observed from the inside since any bunching or the like of the various seams is totally concealed and a neat and attractive finish presented at a place which, in ordinary blouses, is necessarily rather unsightly.

More particularly, I form this shield of two separate and substantially similar pieces of material l and 8 each approximately semi-elliptical in shape. Along its curvilinear edge each piece may be scalloped, as shown, or otherwise attractively finished and the two pieces are united to each other and to the rest of the blouse by stitching 9 as best shown in Figs. 2 and 4, this seam substantially coinciding with portions of the seams and 6 adjacent the point at which they merge at the lower edge of the armhole. The'shield is then secured transversely to the blouse by short rows of stitches In, H respectively adjacent opposite edges of the shield where they overlie the seam 4. Thus the edges of the shield are slightly gathered as at l2, [3 by the stitches), ll so as to take up the slight fullness at this point and thereby shape the shield to substantial conformity with adjacent portions of the blouse. Thus considering the shield as of substantially elliptical form, it is apparent that it is firmly united to'the blouse along its minor axis and only at the extremities of its major axis and can thus accommodate itself to relativemove ment between material forming the sleeve and that forming the body when the blouse is in use, the shield normally lying within the latter closely adjacent the inner side of the fabric and extending outwardly in all directions from the point where the several seams unite as best shown in Fig. 1 in which the blouse is illustrated substantially as it would appear when in use and the wearers arm is raised toward a generally horizontal position. When the arm is lowered so as to bring the under side of the sleeve adjacent the side of the body, the shield of course moves with the arm and body material so as to extend downwardly in the sleeve and in the body respectively adjacent the inner side of those parts of the fabric which tend to rub on each other as the arm is moved relatively to the body, and the absence of any scam in the shield proper along its major axis, except at its extremities where the stitches I0, II hold the shield to the seam 4, insures a smooth folded edge overlying this more or less upstanding seam or edge to protect the wearer from any contact therewith without increasing the bulk of material lying in and beneath the armpit to an amount which would cause-discomfort or give the sensation of a tight armhole. Under these conditions the shield, as above pointed out, forms a cushion between the wearers arm and body and the material forming thearm and body of the blouse and tends to greatly minimize the eflects of the rubbing action therebetween when the wearer moves her arm, while, of course, since the shield is of linen or other material generally similar to that of theblouse, it interposes'an absorbent layer between the skin and the blouse material proper which greatly minimizes the deleterious effects of perspiration and moisture thereon and so maintains the original strength of the fabric for a much longer time than would otherwise be retained. In consequence, the tendency of the blouse to wear more rapidly adjacent the wearers armpits than at other points is negatived and its useful life as awhole correspondingly prolonged, while the presence of the shield materially enhances the appearance when viewed from the inside.

Moreover, since the shield is a permanent part of the garment and equally washable therewith, the necessity for removing and replacing it each time the garment is laundered is avoided, with consequent saving of a material amount of time and annoyance on the part of the owner.

While I have herein described one, embodiment of the invention with considerable particularity, it will be understood that changes and modifications may be made in the details thereof within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. In a garment of the class described comprising a body and a sleeve having respectively intersecting side and underarm seams and a seam connecting the body and sleeve, a substantially elliptical shield consisting of an initially flat single layer of flexible fabric of substantially the same material as the garment, forming a permanent part thereof and lying within the body and the sleeve, stitching coextensive and in substantial alignment with one of the axes of the shield and securing it to said side and underarm seams, and means interconnecting the extremities of the other axis of the shield to the seam between the body and sleeve, said stitching and saidmeans constituting the sole connection between the shield and the garment, said shield being entirely free between said stitching and its attached extremities and the free portions having substantially the same flexibility as the material of the garment.

2. In a garment of the class described comprising a body and a sleeve having respectively intersecting side and underarm seams and a seam connecting the body and sleeve, a substan-- tially elliptical shield consisting of an initially fiat single layer of flexible fabric of substantially the same material as the garment, forming a permanent part thereof and lying within the body and the sleeve, stitching coextensive and in substantial alignment with one of the axes of the shield and securing it to said side and underarm seams, and means interconnecting the other axis of the shield to the seam between the body and sleeve at points spaced from the first axis, said stitching and said means constituting the sole connection between the shield and the garment, said shield being entirely free between said stitching and said means and the free portions having substantially the same flexibility as the material of the garment.

FRANK W. NETSKY. 

